St Edward's Academic Review 2025

ACADEMIC REVIEW 2025

For all of the Soviet military’s abundant advanced technology, they were unable to provide appropriate uniforms for their soldiers. Finnish troops (especially snipers) were experts in camouflage. White uniforms helped them blend perfectly into the snow, multi-purpose stoves used for cooking and warmth emitted little smoke, keeping encampments hidden, skis for men and reindeer sledges for heavy equipment meant travel was nearly silent, and almost invisible in the long arctic nights. This had a devastating effect on Soviet morale – the Russian forces often did not know their enemy had arrived until they saw a comrade fall dead into the snow and this made them paranoid, anxious and sleep deprived. The Soviets, expecting a quick war, were not equipped for the worst of the Finnish winter – green uniforms silhouetted them against the snow, olive tanks stood out. Only three months into a 100-day war were they issued white gear and paint. Soviet camps used bivouacs, large field kitchens that emitted thick smoke for cooking. For warmth, troops gathered around roaring campfires that gave away the location of their camps and of each soldier huddled around the bonfire to Finnish snipers (Trotter, 2013). The Soviets were ready for frontal warfare – they could not use their superior numbers and equipment if the enemy were nowhere to be found. Paranoia, anxiety and insomnia made Soviet troops less effective and less able to work as a team. The Finnish didn’t only blend in with their environment, they also utilised it. Key to their early success was the use of lakes. One reason Finland’s guerilla tactics were so effective was because the Soviets were constantly forced onto winding paths and were unable to engage in conventional warfare for which they were prepared. Finland’s many large, frozen lakes could have solved that issue. However, the Finnish anticipated this and measures were put into place. Mines were placed on pull ropes underneath the ice – small enough to float and very weak, but still strong enough to shatter ice. Once several convoys had sunk to the bottom of arctic lakes the Soviets began avoiding the lakes altogether. Massive sheets of cellophane were unrolled over lakes so that from the air they appeared unfrozen, resulting in further avoidance (Trotter, 2013). For the Soviets, losing the lakes meant losing their last chance at open warfare, where they could dominate. Morale is a weapon of war equal to guns, tanks and planes. The Finnish understood this well; the Soviets did not. The initial months of the Winter War illustrate this. The USSR is infamous for its lack of care for the lives of its soldiers with the

While the motti dominated as the most effective single tactic for the Finnish, many of the guerilla warfare tactics that they used were determined by case-by-case decisions made by the men in the field. They would attach detonators to moving parts of houses (doors, drawers, etc.), or put mines in haystacks, kitchen utensils or under sledges. Village wells were poisoned, cheap pipe mines buried in snowdrifts and attached to tripwires. Finnish Colonel Saloranta invented a landmine made primarily of wood – this meant that it was undetectable by Soviet electronics. It was powerful enough to blow treads off tanks and forced Soviet patrols to spend time clearing roads, greatly slowing convoys with tanks (Trotter, 2013). These sorts of innovative and ingenious tactics helped to conserve scarce supplies and the creativity and unpredictable nature of such devices constantly caught unsuspecting Soviets off guard so they also became paranoid. As the war progressed, Soviet soldiers would never feel safe. In their own camps, a Finnish soldier could come skiing out of the forest, attack, and ski off; wherever the Soviets went, there was a mine to be stepped on, a detonator to be activated – no door was safe to open, no house safe to enter while they were in Finland. This was a heavy blow to Soviet morale. The Molotov cocktail was invented during the Spanish Civil War, but it was the Finnish who immortalised it as a favourite weapon of guerilla armies and coined its name. It has been used worldwide in conflicts from 1956 Budapest to today’s Kyiv (Ruane, 2022). To perfect a Molotov cocktail, kerosene, tar, and potassium chlorate were added to a gasoline mix, along with a vial of chemicals that ignited on impact to avoid the use of preignition wicks. The Soviet premier was Vyacheslav Molotov during the Winter War – when Helsinki was bombed by Soviet aircraft at 10.30 am on 30th November 1939, the first day of the war, there was a wave of international criticism of the Soviet regime for the unprompted attack. Molotov released a statement saying that the Soviet air force had actually been dropping food, not bombs, to help the starving Finnish. With a bit of dark humour, the Finnish began calling the bombs dropped by the Soviets “Molotov’s bread baskets”. When the new explosive was created, it was named the Molotov cocktail – “a drink to go with the food” (McKay & McKlay, 2017). This device would go on to stall dozens of Soviet tanks, and the ironic nature of its name and its effectiveness proved a morale boost for the Finnish forces.

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